Page 58 - Encyclopedia Of Terrorism

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Anderson, Terry (1949– )———31

Forman, James D. Anarchism: Political Innocence or Mughniyah, a senior Hezbollah official believed to have
Social Violence? New York: Franklin Watts, 1975. masterminded Anderson’s abduction.
Gay, Kathleen. Encyclopedia of Political Anarchy. Santa For the next six and a half years, Anderson lan-
Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 1999. guished in dank basements and windowless rooms
Guerin, Daniel. Anarchism: From Theory to Practice. throughout Beirut and southern Lebanon, blindfolded,
New York: Monthly Review Press, 1970. chained to the floor, and eating meals of stale bread
Joll, James. The Anarchists. 2nd ed. Cambridge, MA: and cheese or cold rice. With the help of his fellow
Harvard University Press, 1980.
Kedward, Roderick. The Anarchists: The Men Who Shocked inmates, Anderson endeavored to keep his mind sharp.
an Era. New York: American Heritage Press, 1971. The captives argued politics, played chess with a set
Pennock, Roland J., and John W. Chapman. Anarchism. Anderson fashioned from salvaged tinfoil, and,
New York: New York University Press, 1978. enchained, ran in circles for exercise. For a time,
Purkis, Jon, and James Bowen, eds. Twenty-First Century Anderson, Sutherland, Weir, and Jenco read the Bible
Anarchism: Unorthodox Ideas for a New Millennium. aloud, praying in what they called the “Church of the
London: Cassell, 1997. Locked Door.”
Negotiations for the freedom of the hostages were
caught up in the tangled web of international politics

ANDERSON, TERRY (1949– ) that defined the late 1980s, most notably the Iran-
Contra affair. The Reagan administration, publicly
committed to “no negotiation” with terrorists, orches-
Enduring 2,454 days of captivity, journalist Terry trated an arms-for-hostages deal with Iran—initially
A. Anderson was the longest-held American during to rescue CIA Station Chief William Buckley, who,
the Lebanon hostage crisis. unbeknownst to them, had died while captive. Weir,
Anderson, a former combat correspondent in Jenco, and Jacobsen were released under this arrange-
Vietnam, became the Middle East Bureau Chief ment. However, by 1987, after the Iran-Contra scandal
for the Associated Press (AP) in 1982, covering the broke, hope for freedom for Anderson and the remain-
civil war in Lebanon and the Israeli invasion of that ing hostages dwindled.
country from the Beirut office. By the-mid 1980s, In the end, a confluence of world events worked to
Westerners, including several journalists, had been secure the release of Anderson and the others.
“disappearing” throughout Beirut, seized by anti- Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini died, to be replaced by
Western Shiite Muslim fundamentalist groups. the more pragmatic Hashemi Rafsanjani. Communism
When four Lebanese AP employees were abducted fell. Israel’s security concerns turned from its borders
in October 1984, Anderson worked military contacts to its occupied territories. Iraq invaded Kuwait, and the
to secure their release. Colleagues of Anderson 17 prisoners were freed, leaving the hostage-holders
believe his fate was sealed when he appeared on without a clear demand. The United States then
Lebanese television, celebrating the return of his crushed Iraq during the Gulf War. When Anderson was
coworkers. released, on December 4, 1991, at age 44, his captors
Shortly after 8 A.M. on March 16, 1985, Hezbollah apologized for what they called a mistake and gave
claimed responsibility, stating that Anderson’s kidnap- him a half-dozen carnations to give to Madeline Bassil,
ping was part of a campaign to rid Muslim regions his soon-to-be wife and mother of his daughter.
of Lebanon of “spies” masquerading as “journalists, Back in the United States, Anderson married Bassil
industrialists, scientists, and men of religion.” (Ander- in 1993 and began a career teaching journalism, first
son’s fellow hostages included American University at Columbia University, and currently at Ohio Univer-
professors David Jacobsen and Thomas Sutherland, sity. In March 2000, Anderson and his family were
Father Lawrence Martin Jenco, and Rev. Benjamin awarded $341 million in a lawsuit against the country
Weir.) Aside from purging Lebanon of alleged spies, of Iran, which backed Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad,
Hezbollah also wanted to use the hostages as bar- the groups responsible for his incarceration.
gaining chips for the release of 17 Lebanese and Iraqi One of the first Americans to be abducted in Beirut,
prisoners held in Kuwait. These 17 were suspects in the and the last to be set free, Anderson’s nearly seven
1983 bombings of the French and American embas- years in captivity mark the era of hostage taking in
sies. One of them was the brother-in-law of Imad Lebanon.